Great potential in Kinsale

THERE’S something about Kinsale — is it the sea air, the architecture, or perhaps the food, shopping, and atmosphere?

There’s a lingering sense of its heyday — a time of cravats and corrosive chianti perhaps, but one which cemented its intentional reputation as food and fun capital.

And it’s coming down with slate-fronted and historic houses of which there is a prime example just come to market.

It’s a beautiful money-pit at Newman’s Mall, a fine Queen Anne ‘semi’ with up to seven bedrooms and a lot of untouched features. It combines a location in the centre of the town with precious green space, courtesy of a large attached garden.

This was once part of the house, and has been offered for sale separately as a site at €250,000, but remains unsold.

The stone-fronted townhouse has an end-of-row position and just the right aspect, facing east to the front, south to the side and west at the back. And the fact that it gets sun all day isn’t lost on the interior, which despite its degraded condition feels good.

The south-facing garden is incongruous in terms of its size and location, (the house is directly behind the White House and faces onto the Kinsale micro-brewery), but it’s acquisition as part of the property would create real grandeur in the finished product.

The house is to go to auction in December, through Maurice Cohalan of Cohalan Downing and he gives a guide of €150,000 to €200,000 for the three-storey townhouse which comes with a raised rear west-facing garden.

An executor’s sale, this semi-detached house is a mixed buy. It could be seen as a steal at the reserve, but it will need a substantial cash injection. And while the roof looks good, the interior needs immediate attention to make the house sound and habitable.

But oh, it’s lovely. Big, bright and despite its deleterious (and in parts, downright dangerous) condition, there’s a cosy feel here.

Neglect in old house wreaks havoc, and with furniture and floor coverings removed, there is the luxury of seeing worm-holed floor boards, crumbling plaster and peeling wallpaper.

But that’s starting at the bad, working back to the good, there are some fine features, in fact, the house has been changed little and it didn’t need to be, it works very well as it stands.

There are two formal rooms on the side of the red entrance door, the first has an inappropriate, but fine example of an Art Deco fireplace and the rear is a less formal room with huge Wyatt window overlooking the back yard and terraced garden.

There may have once been a connection between both rooms, (there’s a large decorative arch in the main living room), but the rear living room connects directly to the kitchen, which still has an original cast iron range — and it possibly even works.

The kitchen is part of a south-facing extension and probably a later addition to the main house and it could be a stunning space. A glass addition would open up the southern side of the house.

And the main hallway is also a very bright, wide space again lit by another huge window, which means it doesn’t have the stuffiness or meanness of later Victorian properties. A wide but delicate staircase leads up to the first floor, where there are three bright bedrooms and a bathroom, continuing to four attic bedrooms which come with character, but also leaks, rot and damaged floors.

In 2001 the house was valued at €440,000, now it’s value has been more than halved. Will it make it? It should because it’s one of the loveliest properties to come on the market in Kinsale for a while.